


At Last

by eafay70



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, F/M, Getting Together, Not Hockey Players (Hockey RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-10-24 13:26:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17705099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: While in the 1800s on business, Brandon promised to make sure an artist's family would be taken care of. Brandon's back in his own time now, so he gets to work on keeping that promise - and does so in an unexpected way.





	At Last

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the following February 2019 VGK Monthly prompts:  
> -player (Brandon Pirri)  
> -trope (time travel)  
> -picture [(this image of artwork in a gallery)](https://www.flickr.com/photos/en321/13991788493/in/photolist-njpzfD-fydNmL-7vQGtt-7H5kdd-8MiKYu-ecVRhe-Fgn4Mh-bBkPN5-adaG8d-ah6NVJ-9gST74-aCCmiu-338ELW-HEPDhn-4SwstP-ozqagK-pHMb3q-aCzE9Z-8MiKCQ-8gQnnP-6SzbDZ-84W2RA-2t4xiB-6yDSG1-qWAGvD-MVJBfG-NQ9K6y-6yDGGJ-GmBY1h-Peb6k-4JhV5g-4RaF6g-bqoDPy-g6VoZ7-9Wh7uN-92Jkto-ctMUM-7eF8s8-74hZL9-9yTitS-aK68RR-fp94nu-8CG9pc-bxgiwp-byC8rn-dk4Un-54VjSv-97N3yB-TPDH49-Rspv1m)
> 
> I was very close to not writing anything for VGK Monthly this month simply because I couldn't think of anything. But then, suddenly, this idea came to me! :D 
> 
> If I'd thought of this sooner, I'd probably have given more thought to how time travel works in this AU...and I'd have wound up very confused. So I'm glad things turned out this way.
> 
> For the record, I don't know enough about art to say if the art in the above-linked picture prompt makes sense for any time within the 1800s. If it doesn't, feel free to imagine that the gallery has other artwork.

Brandon looked carefully at the painting, hoping none of the other people in the gallery got suspicious. When he spotted the signature mark in the corner, he smiled to himself and left the gallery so he could get planning.

Brandon had first seen a version of that painting a few months earlier while in the 1800s on business as a member of Chance's Angels, a group which worked to resolve minor historical problems via time travel. The artist, a very talented young man named Luca, hadn't been part of Brandon's assignment, but Brandon had coincidentally been present when Luca had signed a sketchy deal out of desperation and lost the rights to his works. "I need to eat now," Luca had explained. "More importantly, my wife and children need to eat now. This deal allows that, even if it means they don't benefit from my works in the future. I'll worry about that later."

Luca had looked so miserable that Brandon had felt obligated to say something. "If it doesn't work out," he'd said slowly, "I promise to do what I can to make things right for your family in the future."

"Thank you," Luca had replied. "I'll do what I can to make that unnecessary."

Upon returning to his own time, Brandon looked up Luca and found...not much. After a few weeks of digging, Brandon was able to determine that Luca had never regained the rights to his works, though he had managed to keep his family alive long enough for his children to come to America. Unfortunately, their last name was very common, so finding Luca's descendants was proving close to impossible. Fortunately, once Brandon decided to switch the focus of his search, finding Luca's painting proved difficult, but at least possible. So he allowed himself to feel happy about it.

The happy feeling didn't last once Brandon acknowledged that this finding brought him no closer to finding Luca's descendants. He tried his hardest for about two weeks, then decided to give himself the night off by going out to a bar. And while he wasn't really looking to flirt, he decided to be polite when a very pretty woman took a seat next to him and said, "Hi. I'm Elyse."

"I'm Brandon," he said.

They got to talking about their jobs. Brandon couldn't talk about his real job with Chance's Angels, so he went with the company line: "I'm a historian."

"I love history!" Elyse smiled. (It was a very lovely smile.) "I'm working on my family history in my free time. Apparently we had an artist in the family in the 1800s - I just found his sketchbook." She took out her phone and showed Brandon a picture of a sketch. "Pretty good, huh?"

"I know that signature!" Brandon said without thinking. Elyse looked confused, so Brandon gulped and said, "I was at a gallery a couple weeks ago and saw it on one of the paintings. I'm used to looking at and remembering details for my job, so...yeah, I remember the signature."

"Wow!" Elyse took back her phone, tapped around a bit, then handed it back to Brandon. "You're cute enough for me to want your number anyway, but now I need the details about the gallery, so text yourself and we'll talk."

Brandon sent himself a text, gave back the phone, and replied to the text with the gallery address and a description of Luca's painting. Once all that was done, he asked if he could buy her a drink, and the night proceeded more normally.

While Elyse didn't go home with him that night, she did text him a few days later to ask if he wanted to meet up for dinner; naturally, Brandon accepted. Elyse told him that she'd gone to the gallery with the sketchbook, confirmed with a docent that it was the same signature, and started the process of getting the rights to the artist's works for her family. Brandon expressed his happiness at this development, but was careful not to offer help since he didn't want to explain the time travel stuff...at least not yet. He focused instead on getting to know Elyse, whom he found fascinating even without the connection to Lucas.

(Brandon wound up explaining everything to Elyse about a year later, once she'd finished getting her family the rights to Luca's work and Brandon had felt confident enough in their relationship to ask for permission to tell his girlfriend about Chance's Angels. Elyse's reaction was mostly shock, followed by lots of questions and a distinct lack of breaking up with him. Brandon counted it as a win.)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Feedback is love!
> 
> Disclaimer: I have no idea what Elyse's maiden name is. I just needed a reason why Brandon would have struggled to find the family, so I went with "very common last name."


End file.
